Sunday, July 30, 2006

Ruckus Wireless, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, announced the commercial availability of MetroFlex, a high-performance 802.11b/g wireless access gateway specifically designed to give consumers better in-home connectivity to outdoor metro-scale Wi-Fi networks.

Ruckus Wireless said its MetroFlex system is the most sensitive and reliable in-home Wi-Fi receiver on the market and has demonstrated the ability in rural environments to sustain above 5 Mbps at one kilometer away from the nearest Wi-Fi node. According to the company, the device is capable of receiving signals down to -100 dBm. It is equipped with a high power amplifier and dual (vertically and horizontally) polarized directional antennas that combine to deliver extended range and performance. The MetroFlex supports the latest data encryption (WPA PSK), 802.1x authentication and dynamic channel selection. Automatic firmware updates allow product upgrades without any user intervention.

Additionally, unique software developed by Ruckus Wireless specifically for its MetroFlex product determines the fastest Wi-Fi node with which to associate, based on the best data rates and strongest Wi-Fi signal.

The MetroFlex system is being deployed by several metro-scale Wi-Fi providers throughout the U.S., will be resold by Expressnets, a customer premise equipment (CPE) supplier and systems integrator, and is compliant with Tropos Networks' Metro Compatible Extensions Specification (TMCX) program.

"Subscriber connectivity at home is a potential Achilles heel for metro-scale Wi-Fi," said Leo Wandling, president of Expressnets. Expressnets was recently selected by the City of Mountain View (CA) as the official Metro Wi-Fi modem supplier and home subscriber integrator for its city-wide Wi-Fi network.

http://www.ruckuswireless.com

Ruckus' smart Wi-Fi technology uses automatically tunable high-gain antennas known as a smart antenna array. This smart antenna array sends and receives Wi-Fi signals over the best possible RF path at any given time. If the Wi-Fi environment changes, the Ruckus MetroFlex tunes itself by steering signals around problem areas or interference, thereby avoiding connection problems and poor performance.